Paul Prescott's opening keynote at the American Shakespeare Centre 2015 Blackfriars Conference will focus on the life and work of Sam Wanamaker, founder of Shakespeare's Globe, and a key figure in the 'original practices' and reconstructionist movements. The topic is apt: the conference takes place in the stunning Blackfriars Playhouse which opened in 2001, was partly inspired by the opening of Shakespeare's Globe in London, and has been called 'one of the most historically important theatres in the world'. Paul had previously visited the Blackfriars on the 'Shakespeare on the Road' tour of fourteen North American festivals in the summer of 2014 (pictured onstage with Professor Ralph Alan Cohen of the American Shakespeare Centre and Dr Paul Edmondson of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust).